My 2025 Writing Goals Part One: The Novel

Welcome to part one of my three-part series on my 2025 writing goals! Click here to read part two or here for part three.

I've been a writer my whole life. In fact, I knew in second grade that this is what I was going to do with my life. While everyone around me debated being a firefighter, a doctor, or a police officer, I dreamt of being a published author.

Never once have I doubted that dream, and while I've made great strides over the years, I have yet to claim a space on a shelf at Barnes and Noble. In 2025, that changes. Here's how I plan to do it:

Step One (January-March): Finish the Thing

Step one is pretty crucial, seeing as how the book isn't actually written yet. I have just over 30,000 words in my draft, but I'm only about a third of the way through the full story.

What's it about, I hear you ask? As someone known for talking hours on end about my writing projects, I'll keep this pitch as brief as I can.

In the near future, humanity discovers an asteroid barreling toward Earth. It's a planet-killer, so the governments of the world partner with tech billionaires to try and develop a way to destroy it. They succeed.

Unfortunately for us, the asteroid was carrying a parasite through the stars, one that infects its hosts and lies dormant until it believes it can spread itself most effectively.

When that happens, your body mutates rapidly as it rewrites your DNA to turn you into the perfect machine for its singular purpose.

The book begins a year after the infections started spreading in the United States and elsewhere in the world. In the US, infected people are confined to heavily guarded quarantine zones, to mitigate the damage if they start to mutate.

As an ancient cult moves in the shadows, having waited thousands of years for this moment, the United States Congress convenes for a historic vote to decide the fate of everyone trapped in quarantine zones.

Welcome to my novel, "For Those About to Vote...", the first book in a cosmic horror trilogy that I like to describe as a combination of The Thing and Lovecraft Country.

It stars six characters that you'll jump between over the course of the book. It's ambitious, but this time I actually wrote an outline, so now I just need to spend the first few months of 2025 finishing the draft.

Then comes step two.

Step Two (April-July): The Edits Begin

Once I have the first draft done, the real work begins. I'll most likely print, read, and annotate the draft myself, but then I'll need to get other eyes on it, including an editor.

I've already begun scouring social media and following editors who look like a good fit, but if you're reading this and you provide editing services, please drop your info in the comments!

I know I'm not a perfect editor. No doubt many of my Vocal stories have gone live with a few typos, but I've tried to ask for help over the years, and for the novel I will spare no expense hiring the best person I can find.

Editing is about more than just catching typos. It's about distilling the story to its most pure form. It's nearly as important as the writing itself.

And that's the thing. I used to get hung up on making the first draft perfect, but all that did was slow me down.

I read something a while back that said writing your first draft is shoveling sand into the sandbox so you can build sandcastles later. That really resonated with me.

So, if you struggle with perfection during the drafting phase, just remember, you're merely creating the building blocks for your masterpiece.

And don’t worry, I’ve also become a lot better about accepting criticism over the years. Constructive feedback is your friend! Not sure who needs to hear that, but it’s true.

Step Three (July-December): Start Sending Queries

I'm giving myself a lot of space for this last step, because I've seen stories from those in the proverbial "query trenches" and I know this part can be quite long.

Now, I'm aware that I could self-publish on Amazon and with other retailers, but I've actually gone that route briefly in the past.

There are some old books on Amazon that I did in partnership with a small publisher, and while they did pretty well, it ultimately wasn't the path I wanted to take.

I want all the struggle, rejection, and the pain that comes from publishing the traditional way. I know it's not going to be easy, but I truly believe there's an audience for my book, and I intended to find it.

So, once the manuscript is polished to a mirror sheen, I'm going to start sending it to agents.

This is the part that I'm least familiar with, but my 5+ years of marketing experience means that I should (theoretically) be able to write one hell of a query letter. We'll see.

Back to Writing

If you made it this far, first of all, thank you for reading! I'm hoping that this piece finds its way to someone who is struggling to finish their novel and maybe gives them the peace of knowing they are not alone in their struggle.

Writing is something unique to us as human beings. It’s a gift that many people have, but very few spend the time and energy needed to hone their craft. If you’re reading this, you’re one of these chosen few, and I’m rooting for you.

Finishing a book is a daunting task. Funny enough, I used to work as a freelance ghostwriter, and back then I would put out a 50K word novel a month to pay the bills. Of course, when it comes time to give my novel that same treatment, I freeze up.

That’s changing this year. I first started this project in 2016. I'm almost ten years deep now, and it's high time I finished the damn thing.

So, that's what I'm going to do.